Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
These guidelines were prepared by the American College of Laboratory Animal
Medicine (ACLAM) to assist in the formulation and evaluation of programs of
veterinary care for laboratory animals. The professional judgment of a trained
and experienced veterinarian is essential in the application of these guidelines
to specific institutional settings.
The ACLAM recognizes that both regulatory and science sponsoring agencies
such as the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Public
Health Service of the United States Department of Health and Human Services
(PHS/DHHS), through their respective regulations and policies, support the
concept of "adequate veterinary care" within their own range of interest and
specialization. This document, written by ACLAM, an organization comprised of
veterinarians certified in the specialty of laboratory animal medicine, is a
detailed description of adequate veterinary care and is intended to apply to
animals used, or intended for use, in research, teaching or testing.
The veterinarian responsible for supporting an institutional animal care and use
program must have appropriate authority to execute the duties inherent in
assuring the adequacy of veterinary care and overseeing other aspects of
animal care and use to ensure that the program meets applicable standards.
The veterinarian must be fully knowledgeable concerning the current and
proposed use of animals in the institutional research, testing and teaching
programs.
At least one veterinarian must be a full member of the Institutional Animal Care
and Use Committee (IACUC) and actively involved in the review of all protocols
and projects, and in the inspection of facilities and review of institutional
programs involving animals in research, testing and teaching. For the veterinary
care program to be judged "adequate," there is a continuing institutional
responsibility to foster and support enhancement of the program through the
identification and adoption of techniques, procedures and policies that improve
laboratory animal health and well-being.
ACLAM endorses the American Veterinary Medical Association Principles of
Veterinary Ethics and the specific guidelines regarding veterinarians employed
by other than veterinary medical organizations. Veterinarians must be especially
vigilant in ensuring that their professional veterinary judgments are neither
influenced nor controlled by institutional interests to the detriment of the
laboratory animals.
The provision of adequate veterinary care involves the following primary areas
of responsibility:
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
D. Animal Well-Being
Adequate veterinary care includes responsibility for the promotion and
monitoring of an animal's well-being before, during and after experimentation
or testing. Animal well-being includes both physical and psychological aspects of
an animal's condition evaluated in terms of environmental comfort, freedom
from pain and distress and appropriate social interactions, both with
conspecifics and with man. The veterinarian must have the authority and
responsibility for making determinations concerning animal well-being and
assuring that animal well-being is adequately monitored and promoted. The
veterinarian must exercise this responsibility in review of animal care and use
protocols, and must have the authority to remove an animal from an
experiment which is adversely affecting its well-being beyond a level reviewed
and approved by the IACUC.
The following examples represent how this responsibility can be met:
1. Ensuring the adequacy of the physical plant, caging and ancillary
equipment.
2. Developing, implementing and monitoring sound animal care (husbandry)
programs including such areas as sanitation, nutrition, genetics and
breeding and vermin control.
3. Establishing an acclimatization program to adapt animals to either shortterm or long term restraint procedures.
4. Improving and enriching an animal's environment to minimize the
development of physical or behavioral abnormalities.
5. Providing appropriate opportunities for human-animal socialization and
acclimatization to the research environment or procedures.
6. Performing periodic physical and clinical evaluations appropriate for the
species and the experimental situation.
7. Providing pre-procedural and post-procedural care in accordance with
current established veterinary procedures.
Related Concerns
Other areas of professional concern and responsibility for the veterinarian which
may not strictly be part of the ACLAM description of adequate veterinary care
include the following:
1. Participating in the development and administration of training for
institutional staff in the care and use of laboratory animals.
2. Assisting institutional health officials to establish and monitor an
occupational health program for all animal care workers and others who
have substantial animal contact.
3. Monitoring for zoonotic diseases such as leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis,
rabies, Q-fever, B-virus infection, hantavirus infection, and lymphocytic
choriomeningitis.
4. Advising on and monitoring of standards of hygiene among institutional
staff involved with research animal care and use.
Conclusions
The Diplomates of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine believe
that adequate veterinary care is an integral component of humane animal care
and use in research, teaching and testing and further, that the state of animal
well-being ensured through adequate veterinary care is essential to reliability of
results from experimentation with animals. The essential components of
adequate veterinary care programs for laboratory animals include:
a. one or more qualified veterinarians and veterinary technical staff,
b. authority to implement the veterinary care program and provide oversight
of related aspects of the institutional animal care and use program,
c. disease prevention, diagnosis and control programs,
d. guidance for research staff in animal methods and techniques, and
e. the promotion of animal well-being.